I've only done it a few times, but grooming is ultra important.
To start with, forget any blooms or scapes that show any kind of slug, snail, or insect damage. You will also get dinged if you have thrips or ants on your exhibit. (Ants can be sneaky.
They like to get deep down into the bud, going after something sweet there.)
Bring a pair of hand pruners, and cleanly and carefully cut each bud scar so that it looks green when cut, and not brown. (DO NOT, as I did my first show, cut off a branch full of empty bud scars, to "make it look better"... the judges will think that there was no branch full of blooms there, and you will get dinged for poor branching and/or a low bud count.
)
Bring a small makeup brush or some Q-tips, and very carefully brush off any stray pollen or specks of dirt from the bloom.
Bring a small fingernail scissors, and carefully trim any brown bracts, so that what is left is all green, and has a natural pointed shape.
If you brought a flower whose petals or sepals didn't open quite right (why did you?) you can sometimes carefully poke and prod them into a natural and pleasing shape. (If you don't, or if you damage the petal or sepal in doing so, that's another ding.)
If you brought a scape with two or more blooms, it is imperative that they all be the same top quality (you will get dinged if any one of them is worse than the other(s)), and it is also imperative that they DO NOT TOUCH. It is better to sacrifice the lesser or touching blooms, keeping only the best bloom(s), and only if they don't touch each other. (Top ribbons seem to go to the exhibits having two or more blooms, but only when these rules are followed... exhibits with one bad bloom or two or more touching blooms will not win top ribbons.)
I clerked for two shows (iirc, that was some years back) and it was very eye-opening as to the reasons why exhibits got poor or no ribbons - it was almost entirely due to poor or no grooming.
Others perhaps will help you out with the transport issue.
