Ive grown Dusky Challenger since it was first introduced. Yes, i did pay the 35 - 40.00 for it back then - (don't exactly remember the cost). As i've moved from place to place over the years, ive taken a rhizome of it, and it continued in my collections for more that 20 years after it was introduced. It was a consistent performer. Maybe Ray Schreiner didn't know it, but its genetic makeup hit nearly all the marks of a proven great -- hardiness, consistent growth performance in nearly all climactic zones, fairly rapid increase, showstalks, and a reliable winner at the iris shows, somewhat rot resistant, and a rich deep and clean color.
Of course, Schreiners massive distribution network, both mail order and wholesale helped to further distribute this cultivar to vast numbers of people. It was remarked, that Schreiners sent a piece of Dusky Challenger as a bonus with nearly every order that came in, for a number of years after its intro.
I grew hundreds of cultivars even back then, and it was already rivaled and in my opinion
, surpassed by existing purple cultivars that i had in my collection at the time, and has indeed been rivaled and surpassed many times since then. The big "BUT" is, that other worthy purple selfs were intro'd by lesser known hybridizers who didn't have the name recognition, the huge distribution network, or marketing power that Schreiners had. And many of them, sad to say, didn't have that lucky strike gene combination which enabled DC to thrive in most climactic zones where other purples failed.
