Normally, they tend to develop flower buds in the summer/fall. These flower buds then open in the Spring. If you prune off branches that had the flower buds, you would loose those flowers but you would get blooms from uncut branches with buds from last year. The new growth would develop blooms in the summer/fall.

Then there are now some varieties that bloom several times through the growing season but, it sounds like your azaleas are not one of those. Think: Encore Azaleas, Bloom-A-Thon Azaleas, etc. Those can me pruned after any of their big flushes. Weather permitting, these sometimes may spend a very long time blooming in warm climates and can be a pain Grrr! trying to decide when to prune because they "almost always" have one or two kernels of flowers still blooming here and there in the bush. Ha!

The best (safest) time to prune azaleas is right after they have bloomed.... so you get to enjoy the bloomage.

I realize everything you said. They are not Encores. I severely pruned just after bloom last year. Usually they then form their buds right after that for the following spring bloom. But after severely pruning them after last years bloom they did not bloom this spring. My question is, is it ok to prune them now or maybe I shouldn’t cause it takes 2 years to bloom again after severe pruning? I’d like to keep their size in check.

Is it evergreen or deciduous? My evergreen Rhododendron (same genus) took two years to bloom after a severe pruning, I imagine because it was putting so much energy into regrowing stems and foliage that it didn’t have the extra energy to put into growing flower buds. So if the foliage is nice and full now and you don’t remove too much of it, I imagine it would bloom next season. But if you remove enough of the leaves that it needs to replace lots of foliage, it won’t have the foliage needed to create the required energy. Consider pruning half of the branches each of two alternating years. Or think about whether you have a spot where this might be able to grow to its full size instead of needing pruning and replace with one that is better sized for the spot it is in. (I am assuming that you are cutting individual stems as you prune, not taking a hedge trimmer to it. If you are using a hedge trimmer, don’t.)

When you say prune half of the branches each of two alternating years do you mean half of the branches on each bush every other year?

Half of the branches pruned one year, half the next, with the arrangement being alternating branches cut.