I have played around with this a little. I wanted to get bigger, more colourful flowers than what I was getting on my Soehrensias. What I did was pollinate the Soehrensias (formosa types) with a Trichocereus that was flowering at the time. A Tricho. similar to T.shcickendanzii, but flowered earlier when the Soehrensias have their first flowers. I got some nice plants with various shades of yellows and oranges. Bigger flowers, some with scent, some without and some that even though they were coloured, only opened in the evening like the Trichocereus, most opened with the sun like the Soehrensias. Using a Soehrensia with a very dark red flower, I have managed to get a couple of plants with large pink flowers, very special in my opinion. The trick is to get plants that are flowering together and go for it! Or, you will have to collect and store pollen. I was playing around with the bigger plants because I have the luxury of plenty of space and I like the big plants. However with Echinopsis and Lobivias you will be able to keep them in pots. I had a friend grow some of my hybrid seed up on the north coast of New South Wales where the climate was almost tropical. She had plants flowering in three years from seed!! As you could imagine, they grew very lush and didn't have a very nice shape about them. But they flowered. The long-term upkeep of these wasn't easy, they tended to rot and get black marks on them. It took five years for the same plants to flower for me with a cold winters rest, but the plants are compact, healthy and looking good. The smaller growing Lobivias and Echinopsis may be able to be 'forced' in the same way, I don't know. What I do know, it's fun! Good luck. Joylene.

Understood--my sunroom is at it's max right now. Summer I have less concern so that's when I go overboard. But not this year......... So I'll print out your post and put it in on my June calendar and we'll go from there. Unfortunately some of my nice flowered Schicks are very selfish with pups. Probably why Huntington has such a problem filling the demand. Just a note about Gary's hybrids--the flowers are lovely, but they are more of the size of the Paramounts and so are not as showy as the Schicks (the ones I have, anyway). I think I have a 'Pink Devil' pup that flowered so that's a start. I think it's European heritage. I'm always happy to spread the "love".

@rikki_t I wish I had some shade behind our condo for them. I’ve been scouting shady areas on the grounds to put them. Next winter I’ll bring a couple bigger plants down here to Florida to see how they do. They need a cool dry period to bloom. I don’t worry about them when the temps get into the 40’s but I make sure to bring them in before a hard freeze. They currently spend the winter inside with the temp set at about 65 and they bloom every summer. The temps around Fort Myers are unlikely to get to cold.

Echinopsis are pretty tricky. Been growing ferocacti and cereoids for years , and for the most part they are problem free if you are careful. Echinopsis..... are erratic. They can take water, they can take heat, they can take muck, and they can also croak when you blink. So, unless you live in the desert, you need to be lucky.