The flower became popular as stamps and depicted in monuments and military graveyards throughout the country. However, as a delicate protected wildflower growing in the mountains, it was never actually worn on Yom HaZikaron. In its stead, Israelis would wear a sticker with a picture of the flower. This changed last year.
After two years of agricultural research, and much trial and error, we managed together with Israeli expert botanists to cultivate the very first Dam Hamaccabim field. We established, for the first time in history, a field designated to not only growing these wildflowers but also having them blossom three months before their natural blossom. The field and the early blossom made it possible for us, in 2019 to initiate our very first pilot year of distributing 30,000 pins on Yom HaZikaron throughout the country, and even to the pioneering community of Orange County. By 2020, and despite Covid challenges- we distributed 50,000 pins. For the upcoming 2021 Yom HaZikaron- we hope to reach up to 120,000 pins nationwide.