Can potted plants come back every year?

[sfagan2022]

I have a beautiful hydrangea, rhododendron and azalea in pots in my south westerly facing garden. Will they grow back every year? I'm desperate to keep them alive (novice gardener) and have bought plant food and regularly watering etc. Any tips?

Well, yes, they should come back next year.

The hydrangea will lose its leaves over the winter; just prune back the dead flowerheads in the spring. They are pretty bombproof - I had one that completely died while we were on holiday, so I stuck the pot in a corner and forgot about it; the following spring it sprouted back up from the roots.

Make sure you give the azalea and rhodi some ericaceous plant food. And they don't like too much hot sun.

Yes they should do op. They are perennials which means they die back a bit (hydrangeas look dead) but come roaring back next spring which is better for the purse than normal bedding plants

Yes, they're perennials. Feed and water regularly, and they should be fine.
.... but they might eventually be happier to be planted out into the soil and have more room and moisture than they get in a pot.

If you need to repot use ericaceous compost for azaleas and rhododendron as they prefer that kind of soil. If you live in the north, I think a potted azalea may be sensitive to frosts, so you may need to put it somewhere frost free in the worst of the winter and/or wrap it in gardeners fleece.

Yes, absolutely, those are all shrubs that should come back year after year. However they are also all shrubs that would appreciate a little bit of shade, or at least prefer not to be in full blasting sunshine.

This azalea has been in this pot for over five years and flowers beautifully every year, all I've ever done is watered it....

Wow that's beautiful @SwelegantParty - it almost looks like a bougainvillea