Mona,
Anyone can enter the daylily shows. You do not have to be a member of a local club. However, in order to win the rosettes at the head table you must be a member of the AHS (can join day of the show)
The club/organization furnishes everything that is needed for the show (except flowers) including VASES. And there is no fee to enter (I think most do it that way)
Different clubs use different awards. The Mobile Club does the crystal like you saw. The Pensacola club has various candle holder/decorations and the BEST IN SHOW gets a crystal award.
Usually the local club has a grooming clinic the month before the shows you could go to. Clean and green is the way to go. But basically you make sure there is no brown. If there is a bloom scar then you would just snip off the tip where it is brown. If the little leafy part on the bract has a brown tip just snip off the brown (in the shape of a V like it would be naturally). Wipe the scape with a baby wipe or paper towel to get off the environmental/spray residues that dull it. With a Q-tip clean between the branches and anywhere else that spider webs may be and to dab off any fallen pollen on the bloom. If you have any buds that are rubbing the open bloom you would want to snip them off. If the scape has any insect damage you can try and scrape it off if it's not too deep, but sometimes it's best to leave it because if you scrape too much it makes it look worse. # 1 most important thing is DO NOT use a green marker to cover any brown up. You will be automatically disqualified and the judges will move on to the next flower. You can groom at home or at the shows you can get there early and they usually have tables set up for this sole purpose and they can guide you on what to do. Don't think your scape has to be perfect because it doesn't. Most judges will only take off a point or two for certain things therefore, you could have 5 things wrong that 1 point each was taken off for and still get a purple ribbon and possibly go to the head table.
99% of the time it is just chance of what is blooming that day or what you know will open that day (some people cut the scapes the night before and put in water). I cut these the night before since I had to drive an 1 1/2hrs to the Mobile Show and had to be there early since I was a clerk. Not all opened like I had hoped, but most did. Even if they are not open all the way that morning you can still take them because they will continue to open and usually will open all the way by time the judging starts.
Some people grow certain daylilies just for this purpose. If you are hybridizing with them then you wouldn't want to cut the scape off if you had pods on them, but if you have enough scapes that cutting one off won't bother you then do it. I was using my garden daylilies and did cut off some from the hybridizing area because I hadn't set anything on them and had plenty of other scapes on them to use. When I moved I had to get rid of a lot of my daylilies and only kept the ones that I had gotten purples in the show with. So this year I will use those plus I will use some of my hybridizing daylilies as well. You just never know what will be blooming the day of the show.
Some people think it's hard to be in the shows, but it's not. It's pretty fun. And you don't have to take a lot of scapes either. It only takes one to win. You could start with say five just to get your feet wet.
Here's a link on transporting daylilies to the show
http://www.daylilies.org/Trans...
