The easiest way to accomplish your goal would be to send the new owners a Christmas card, thanking them for the chance to visit to old homestead. Maybe a fruitcake would be nice. Then, you wait until April, and ask them if it would be OK to visit again, and dig out some raspberry roots. The roots can be put into small pots, with dirt packed around, and kept damp. A plastic bag to cover and prevent evaporation would be helpful. They should be transported to their new home, and planted within a few days, if possible. I have taken volunteer raspberry plants from our patch, and moved them to new locations, in the spring, just as they are leafing out. The success rate has been over 90%.

Well.... I know that wild blackberry seeds will grow into plants because they can be spread by birds.

Raspberries are a cool weather plant so probably don't need a lot of heat to germinate. They might need to be stratified and it won't hurt them to stratify them if it turns out they don't need it. Then just put them in some soil in the spring and make sure they don't dry out or get too wet and see what happened.

The actually plants at your parent's house are probably spread from root suckers and not by seeds, so are probably not mixed parentage.

However, if you want to germinate the seeds, go for it and I wish you the best of luck with the project.

There IS raspberry breeding going on and one of the universities that specializes in Raspberries can probably give you advice about how they germinate raspberry seeds.

Also, there is a "propagating from seed" forum here on Garden web. Maybe someone there knows.

Raspberry seeds can remain dormant for a very long period of time if not given the right opportunity to germinate. They have a thick seed coat that water doesn't penetrate very easily on its own. They need to go through scarification - weakening of the seed coat. In nature this is done by animals eating the berries. The acid in their digestive system breaks down the seed coat and those seeds then germinate once they get the right moisture and light after being... deposited lol.

I've have good luck using regular peroxide (3%) treatment. I soak the seeds in the peroxide for 30 minutes then dilute it with water 50/50 and let it sit for 24 hours. Then the seeds are ready for stratification. I put them in a damp medium in the refrigerator for 90 days. After that they can be planted in pots in a bright area but not direct sunlight.

Another method I've heard of but not tried is to bring water to a boil. Take the pot off the heat then put the seeds in. Let them soak in the hot water until it cools to room temperature. After that they can be stratified.

I've also heard of people using a diluted household bleach solution to scarify the seed coat but haven't tried that myself.

Good luck and sorry to hear about your nephew :( .

Tyler

I have got a raspberry seedling atm which I've grown from wild raspberry seed, from which I'd tried to get cuttings to root.

I didnt do anything special other than dry them and remove as much pith as possible, but than I only got 2 (one of which died) from about 8-10 seeds, juse an experiment really though. I do have a 35W CFL over the seedling, although I am not sure if this made any difference or not.

Tossing moldy berries into the garden resulted in many volunteers. They seemed to be reverting -- thick spiney stocks that fall over and nice berries.