Im Garten meiner Schwiegermutter blühen jedes Jahr mehr Tulpen als Rosen.

German often puts a time expression or place expression at the beginning of the sentence for emphasis or to set the scene.

Here, Im Garten meiner Schwiegermutter means in my mother-in-law’s garden, so the sentence starts by telling us where the action happens.

This is very normal in German. When something other than the subject comes first, the finite verb still has to stay in second position:

• Im Garten meiner Schwiegermutter blühen ...
• place phrase = position 1
• verb = position 2

So the word order is not strange in German; it is a standard verb-second sentence.

Im is just a contraction of in dem.

• in dem Garten → im Garten

This contraction is extremely common in German and is usually the natural choice here.

Why dem? Because in can take either the accusative or the dative:

• accusative for movement into something
• dative for location

Here the meaning is location: the flowers are blooming in the garden, not moving into it. So German uses the dative:

• in dem Garten = im Garten

Because meiner Schwiegermutter is in the genitive case, which shows possession.

The phrase means:

• the garden of my mother-in-law
• or more naturally in English: my mother-in-law’s garden

So:

• der Garten = the garden
• meiner Schwiegermutter = of my mother-in-law

Since Schwiegermutter is feminine, the genitive form of mein- here is meiner.

This structure is quite common in written German:

• das Auto meines Bruders = my brother’s car
• der Hund meiner Tante = my aunt’s dog

In everyday spoken German, people often prefer von + dative instead:

• im Garten von meiner Schwiegermutter

But the genitive version in your sentence is completely normal and a bit more elegant.

They are in different cases:

• Garten is dative
• Schwiegermutter is genitive

Why?

1. Garten = dative

Because it follows in in a location meaning:

• im Garten = in dem Garten
• dem Garten is dative

2. Schwiegermutter = genitive

Because it shows possession:

• Garten meiner Schwiegermutter
• literally: garden of my mother-in-law

So the full opening phrase contains both:

• im Garten = dative phrase
• meiner Schwiegermutter = genitive phrase attached to Garten

Because German main clauses follow the verb-second rule.

In this sentence, the first element is the place phrase:

• Im Garten meiner Schwiegermutter

So the finite verb must come next:

• blühen

After that comes the subject:

• mehr Tulpen als Rosen

This can feel unusual to English speakers because English usually wants the subject before the verb. But in German, if another element is placed first, the subject often comes after the verb.

Compare:

• Mehr Tulpen als Rosen blühen jedes Jahr im Garten meiner Schwiegermutter.
• Im Garten meiner Schwiegermutter blühen jedes Jahr mehr Tulpen als Rosen.

Both are possible. The second one simply starts with the location.

A few clues tell us that it is the subject.

1. The verb is plural

The verb is blühen, which is plural. That matches Tulpen.

2. Semantically, tulips and roses are what bloom

The action blühen is being done by the flowers.

3. There is no other likely subject

The opening phrase Im Garten meiner Schwiegermutter is just a location phrase, not the subject.

So the subject is the noun phrase:

• mehr Tulpen als Rosen

That means something like more tulips than roses.

Because the subject is plural: Tulpen.

The basic singular/plural contrast is:

• die Tulpe blüht = the tulip blooms
• die Tulpen blühen = the tulips bloom

In your sentence, the subject refers to tulips in the plural, so German uses:

• blühen

Even though the phrase also includes Rosen, the verb agrees with the main noun being counted in the comparison, which is Tulpen.

German often leaves out articles when speaking about plural nouns in a general or indefinite way, especially in comparisons.

Here, the sentence is not talking about specific previously identified tulips and roses like the tulips and the roses. It is simply comparing quantities:

• more tulips than roses

So no articles are needed.

Compare:

• Im Garten blühen Tulpen. = Tulips are blooming in the garden.
• Im Garten blühen die Tulpen. = The tulips are blooming in the garden.
  (specific tulips)

In your sentence, the article-less version sounds natural because it is about general counts, not specific named flower groups.

Mehr ... als ... means more ... than ....

So:

• mehr Tulpen als Rosen

literally means:

• more tulips than roses

This is a quantity comparison. It does not mean that the tulips are somehow “more blooming” than the roses. It means the number of blooming tulips is greater than the number of blooming roses.

The same pattern appears in many sentences:

• mehr Kaffee als Tee = more coffee than tea
• mehr Kinder als Erwachsene = more children than adults
• mehr Sonne als Regen = more sun than rain

In standard German:

• als is used for inequality comparisons: more than, less than, bigger than
• wie is used for equality comparisons: as ... as

So here:

• mehr Tulpen als Rosen = more tulips than roses

Compare:

• so viele Tulpen wie Rosen = as many tulips as roses

This is one of the most important comparison patterns in German:

• größer als = bigger than
• mehr als = more than
• so groß wie = as big as
• so viele wie = as many as

Jedes Jahr means every year. It is a time expression telling you how often the situation happens.

It can appear in different places in the sentence, for example:

• Im Garten meiner Schwiegermutter blühen jedes Jahr mehr Tulpen als Rosen.
• Jedes Jahr blühen im Garten meiner Schwiegermutter mehr Tulpen als Rosen.

Both are correct. The sentence you have places the location first and then the time expression after the verb.

This is very common in German: place and time expressions are somewhat flexible, though some positions sound more natural depending on emphasis.

Yes. German word order is flexible as long as the main rules are respected, especially verb second in a main clause.

For example, these are all possible:

• Im Garten meiner Schwiegermutter blühen jedes Jahr mehr Tulpen als Rosen.
• Jedes Jahr blühen im Garten meiner Schwiegermutter mehr Tulpen als Rosen.
• Mehr Tulpen als Rosen blühen jedes Jahr im Garten meiner Schwiegermutter.

They all mean roughly the same thing, but the focus changes a little:

• starting with Im Garten ... emphasizes the place
• starting with Jedes Jahr ... emphasizes the time
• starting with Mehr Tulpen als Rosen ... emphasizes the comparison

So German often uses word order to highlight different parts of the message.

It can cover both, depending on context.

German present tense often corresponds to either:

• English simple present: bloom
• English present progressive: are blooming

In this sentence, because of jedes Jahr, English usually translates it with a habitual meaning:

• more tulips than roses bloom every year

So blühen here describes a repeated yearly situation, not necessarily something happening right this second.

Yes, in standard German it is normally written as one compound noun:

• die Schwiegermutter = mother-in-law

German forms many family and everyday nouns this way:

• Schwiegervater = father-in-law
• Großmutter = grandmother
• Hausaufgabe = homework

This is completely normal in German, where compounds are very common.