Face Time: Garden party

Of all the parties to get rained on, the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum's Gala in the Gardens was perhaps the most fitting.

The gardeners and garden lovers in attendance understood that the rain would fuel lush vegetation, even if the cocktail hour had to be moved indoors and decorated with cut flowers. Being inside didn't dampen the green spirit, which was evident in the guests' outfits -- bright florals, garden hats and even a pair of Wellies. Luckily, the skies cleared long enough for guests to wander through the arboretum's gardens.

Gala co-chair Julie Hagen Showers is an unabashed supporter of the arboretum, even though she doesn't consider herself a green thumb. She described her co-chair, Susan Cambell, as an "amazing gardener."

What's Campbell's secret? "Patience, lots of patience," she said. Campbell said she believes in the "sleep, creep, leap" philosophy of gardening. "The first year they sleep and the second year they creep," she said of her plants. "The third year, you're rewarded with a leap."

If the arboretum's abundant irises and fragrant roses were any indication, there was plenty of leaping going on at the arboretum.