What's your strategy for using stereo plugins in a surround mix?

I realize there are a handful of surround compressors, reverbs, etc., available but I'd like the option of using my favorite stereo plugins In a surround mix, realizing of course, that it will require three instances of a stereo plugin to process all six channels of a 5.1 track or bus, for example.

Unfortunately, when inserting a stereo plugin into a surround track or bus, only the L and R channels are processed, with no option of instead processing Ls and Rs, or C and LFE. For example, I see no way to insert a mono de-esser for the Center channel, or two stereo reverbs for the front and rear pairs.

In very simple mixes, I've come up with some workarounds, like sending stereo tracks to three identical effect busses, each dedicated to a surround channel pair. But it's not very elegant and doesn't scale well. For example, how would you apply this strategy to put parallel compression on a 5.1 drum bus? [And then there's the problem of the compressors not being linked. Maybe I really do need a surround compressor after all.]

The only other solution I can think of is a stereo-to-surround plugin 'wrapper' that turns multiple mono or stereo plugins into parallel multichannel uber-plugins. Does such a thing exist?

Is there another way to do this? I can't imagine everyone throws out their go-to plugins whenever doing a surround mix.

 
We have you seen and tried this: https://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=SONAR%20X3&language=3&help=SurroundMixing.16.html
 
If you patch a mono effect into a surround bus, the SurroundBridge assigns each channel to a single instance of the mono effect, which would create six instances of the effect on a 5.1 surround bus.
 
The SurroundBridge also links the automatable parameters of each instance so that when you change a parameter in one instance, you automatically change the same parameter in all the other instances. You can unlink parameters individually, or per-instance
 

Are you kidding me?!!!  That's sick.  And hiding right under my nose the whole time. 
 
Thank you!
 
 

Can I use this method to make 10 separate Stereo pairs out of the 5 surround speakers?  (assuming the LFE drives a sub)
 
If I have a surround setup:
 
             A         B         C
 
            D                     E
 
i should be able to have 10 separate stereo pairs:  AD, AC, CE, DE, AB, BC, AE, DC, DB and BE
 
I want to create stereo buses in my mix for each of these 10 stereo pairs, then assign their output to the Main Surround Bus.
 
I can't select what speakers I want in a STEREO BUS though, can I?  How can I do this?
 
It seems to me this would give a very versatile mix setup for creating spaces in the mix.
 
Does anyone know if I can do this on Sonar X3?
 
Thanks
 

Why would you want 10 stereo pairs?
 
5.1 surround consists of 6 MONO signals, not stereo.
Please explain what you're trying to do

Would be nice if Sonar supported the Waves and other manufactures surround plugins! 

Agreed.  Check out my post re Audio Ease Altiverb XL.