A hydrothermal strategy combined with colloidal deposition synthesis was successfully used to grow ZnO/perovskite (LaBO3, B=Mn, Co, Ni) core–shell nanorod arrays within three dimensional (3-D) honeycomb cordierite substrates. A facile sonication assisted colloidal wash coating process is able to coat a uniformly dispersed perovskite nanoparticles onto the large scale ZnO nanorod arrays rooted on the channel surfaces of the 3D cordierite substrate achieved by hydrothermal synthesis. Compared to traditional wash-coated perovskite catalysts, an enhanced catalytic performance was observed for propane oxidation with 25°C lower light-off temperature than powder-form coated perovskite catalyst of similar LaMnO3 loading (4.3mg). Temperature programmed reduction and desorption under H2 and O2 atmosphere, respectively, were used to study the reducibility and oxygen activity of these core–shell nanorod array based monolithic catalysts, revealing a catalytic activity sequence of LaCoO3>LaMnO3>La2NiO4 at the initial stage of catalytic reaction. The good dispersion and size control in La-based perovskite nanoparticles and their interfaces to ZnO nanorod array support may contribute to the enhancement of catalytic performance. This work may provide a new type of Pt-group metals (PGM) free catalysts with improved catalytic performance for hydrocarbon oxidations at low temperature.