Most shrubs offer one season of interest. Little Honey manages four. The leaves emerge a bright butter-gold in early spring, a color vivid enough to anchor a shaded corner all on their own. By midsummer they have settled into a softer chartreuse, a welcome foil for the loose white panicles that appear in June and July. Then in autumn the whole plant flares red before dropping, leaving behind exfoliating cinnamon-tan bark to carry the garden through winter.

At 3 to 4 feet in both directions, this cultivar fits where the straight species cannot. It suits a foundation planting, a small courtyard border, or a mixed shrub bed where it earns its keep in every month of the year. Because it blooms on old wood, any pruning needed should be done immediately after flowering, never in spring. In colder zones a sheltered site will protect the buds; elsewhere it is reliably undemanding given consistent moisture and humus-rich soil.