Good subject Charlie, wish I could remember a little more of what I have learned in the pass twenty years.
I would have to say the Lee Gates had the best reds in his day and his Scarlet Orbit is still used today as the standard for red daylilies.
I think Pat Stamile had the biggest break in daylilies I will see in my lifetime with his Admirals Braid which came from his own Wedding Band. Registered in 1990 it was the daylily to have if you were a hybridizer. It was the first daylily I paid $150 for(two years after it was released) and had to buy it from someone else because Pat was sold out. I think it was the most used tet in the 90s, if you look in the background of today's modern daylilies many will go back to AB. With its gold edge and blue eyed gene it changed the whole look of daylilies.