Stripping stems is a standard step for all flower farmers. It achieves two purposes: 1. It lessens the bulk on each stem which makes it MUCH easier to arrange flowers and allows you to use more blooms. 2. More importantly: it makes your cut flowers last waaaaay longer. If you leave the leaves on the stems then once they’re in water in a vase they will start to decompose and add bacteria and slimy green foliage to the water. Which will drastically lessen the vase life of your flowers! Some farmer