I have to disagree a bit with Mike. I like long strips for several reasons: first you're not trying to match color with the scarf. Seond no scarfing and third It's faster. The pracatality of shipping long strips is negative therefore, wood suppliers don't do it. It's good to wet the strips at the joint on a scarf before to test the color because wood can decieve you and you may end up with a very noticable joint once you wet it out with epoxy.

If you use bead and cove you could do but joints here and there. But with flat edge, you have to clamp a bridge over the butt joint or ii won't match on the exact curve unless you fasten them to a station.

The downside is that the riping long strips takes more setup time and care since the long board has the torque to jam the saw more.

When I do have to scarf for longer runs, I pre-scarf my strips before using. I use about a 7 to 1 scarf and just use carpenters glue. I like using long strips if possible.