Sorry no one's responded, Ellen. It's not that folks are ignoring you .... just no one has a solution to your problem. To the best of my knowledge, what you're hoping to do simply isn't possible in any practical way. The plants native to your area all REQUIRE a cold winter's dormancy to maintain their health and vigor. Normal house temps just aren't going to cut it. Have you considered checking out plants tropical in nature or those that can be grown as perennials in the southern states? Some like Ficus pumilo (this one has small leaves and is a climber, as I understand it, so you could seek a dead tree-like branch to train it up -- just make sure you sterilize the branch first), Hypoestes (aka polka dot plant), Fittonia, certain types of Selaginella, etc might do the trick for ya. (Though I know you will have some searching to do to find plants giving you the "look" your thinking of.)