A small shade tolerant shrub, native to Siberia and Japan. The honeyberry bush produces an elongated blueberry-like fruit a month or more before the earliest blueberries. Honeyberry fruits are sweet enough to enjoy fresh, with tiny edible seeds, and can be used in cooking as with blueberries. Honeyberries are produced in easy to harvest clusters. Some varieties, such as Blue Bird and Blue Belle are from the far North and can bloom too early in milder winter areas or regions subject to warm spells in the spring. Blue Sea, Blue Pagoda are later blooming varieties that are more likely to be flowering when pollinating insects are active and are equally winter hardy to Blue Sky and Blue Bird. Plant two different varieties for fruit production. Hardy to -40° F when fully dormant.