I personally would refrain from excessive mulching of containerized palms with wood mulches. In the ground it's different, but in a pot you might encourage a problem with excessive moisture and reduced soil airation. When I feel the inclination to make the soil surface more ornate, I'll top dress with a layer of Spanish moss or introduce some coarse sand or sea shells.

Many people in FL use mulch in pots routinely. Cuts down on moisture loss. But Florida is a mulch crazy state anyway. ALmost everyone here mulches anything and everything. The soil is largely so poor, we do it to increase the (eventual) amendments, to retain moisture, to keep the sand from just blowing away in a high wind, and lastly, for ornamental purposes

Thanks guys, I thought I was missing something. I see peoples pots here online and most of them have mulch on top. I thought maybe I was missing something upstairs. I guess not, maybe its them missing it...LOL

So more than anything its a pretty factor or a moisture factor...ok, sounds good. I like mulch, I just thought maybe it had something magical to it and that was the reason so many people were using it.

Hey orchidude - I mulch everything ; breakfast cereal, ham sandwhiches, pot roast, palm trees etc. I think a layer of mulch in the summer months on potted palms (and breakfast cereal) helps control and maintain proper moisture. I pull my mulch off when bringing palms inside in the fall.

This is interesting. Because all of the Needle Palms that we bought last year originate from Florida.

I haven't made any changes to the soil, but was curious as to why the soil is heavily mixed with small wood chips.

Not just on the top, but mixed into all of the soil. The palms do seem to be doing well, however, so unless there's a reason to change the soil, I'll just leave well enough alone.

Not only does the plant look nicer with the mulch on the soil, but it also cuts down on the weeds.

I had to mulch my potted plants too, otherwise the weeds just took over in no time and sucked away all the nutrients the plants could get from the already small supply of it in the pot. Besides it also keeps the pots from drying out quickly. I don't always water all my potted plants on time and some of them get really stressed out. The mulch helps somewhat in between watering.

I mulch all my plants well most of them it realy keeps the moisture in on hot days .

I like the idea of it. esp if it will cut out the weeds.

Its mixed in for 2 reasons:
soil amendment as it breaks down, and moisture "retention" while still helping the pot to drain well.

I mix up all of my potting soil for any potted plants myself. I start with a good quality soilfree mix like Fafords or Jungle Grow, add more peat, more perlite, and add either wood chips, nut hulls, or, in some cases for specific plants, aliflor. In my area a lot of people use peanut hulls as a soil amendment/top mulch on smaller potted plants

I muclch all my put tub plants with chunky coconut fibre. It helps reduce evaporation which is really important during the summer. Also, it looks better than plain black potting mix.

I just discovered Fafards Potting Mix. Great stuff!!! It'll be interesting to see how it holds up over time. I do add perlite for some plants like my tropical hibiscus that need excellent drainage.

One of the main reasons that people mix mulch in the soiless mix is to retain the structure of the soil mix. After awhile, the soiless mix breaks down, and oxygen is not as readily available to the roots due to the compacting of the peat. Coconut husk chips (CHC) is the best for retaining the shape and creating air pockets, but I have used cypress mulch in a mix that i put together with good results. Hardwood mulch tends to use up the nitrogen in the soil as it decomposes.
This is the mix that I use:
40% bark mix
20% peat soiless mix
15% cypress mulch
15% perlite
10% kitty litter -unscented ( calcified clay-micronutrients)
it drains well, but doesn't dry out really fast
Usually palms grow slowly(esp the roots), and as they like to be rootbound, then they tend to stay in the same container for a long period of time-sometimes 2 yrs or more, and that is where the wood or CHC helps to provide oxygen.