This paper presents a study on low temperature hydrothermal growth of ZnO nanorods (NRs) on pre-seeded (0001) sapphire substrates. Prior to hydrothermal growth of ZnO NRs, epitaxial ZnO seeds were grown by metal-organic chemical vapour deposition under various process conditions. Findings show that the majority of ZnO NRs inclined at a specific angle of about 38 degrees to the direction perpendicular to the substrate surface and exhibited a preferential in-plane alignment, besides other NRs growing vertically from the sapphire surface. X-ray diffraction phi-scan measurements reveal that the ZnO nanorods displayed two distinct epitaxial relationships with sapphire which were (0001)(zno)//(0001)(sapphire) and (0001)(zno)//(10 (1) over bar4 )(sapphire), respectively. Reduced lattice mismatch between ZnO and sapphire is responsible for the inclined ZnO NRs growth. The growth direction of ZnO NRs is remarkably dependent on the growth conditions of ZnO seeds and sapphire substrate pre-treatment. The epitaxial orientations of ZnO seeds grown on the sapphire substrate dominate the subsequent ZnO NRs growth and can be controlled through adjusting growth conditions. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.