A harvesting system for harvesting stemmed plants having elongated stems and including bulbous growth disposed at the top of the stems. The harvesting system includes a harvesting unit having a plurality of gripping elements; a cutter for harvesting the plants; and a divergent zone defined by gripping elements for vertically aligning the harvested plants. The harvesting unit further includes a transfer zone defined by gripping elements having another cutter for cutting the harvested plants to selected size, and includes a rotating brush for removing unwanted foliage from the harvested plants, a pair of belts disposed aft of the transfer zone for receiving selectably sized, harvested plants from the transfer zone and a belt-like table disposed aft of the pair of belts for receiving the selectably sized harvested plants from the pair of belts for packing and shipping the plants from the field.