We investigated photoluminescence characteristics of ZnO nano needle-like rods grown on a c-plane $AL_2O_3$ substrate by the hot wall epitaxy method. The nano-rods were vertically well aligned along the ZnO c-axis. The diameters of the ZnO nano-rods ranged from 20 nm to 30 nm and their lengths were between 600 and 700 nm. In the photoluminescence spectrum at 10 K, the exciton emission bound to the neutral donor dominated while defect related emission was weakly observed. With a further increase of temperature, the free exciton emission appeared and eventually became dominant at room temperature.