Herein we report the fabrication of ZnO nanowires on anisotropic wet etched silicon substrates by selective hydrothermal growth. < 100 > oriented silicon wafers were first patterned by anisotropic wet etch with a KOH solution, resulting in V-shaped stripes of different periods. Then, a thin layer of gold was deposited and annealed to promote the hydrothermal growth of ZnO nanowires. It was found that the growth rate of ZnO nanowires on < 111 > surfaces was much higher than that on < 100 > surfaces. As a first application of such micro- and nanostructured surfaces, we show enhanced wetting properties by measuring the contact angle of water droplets on the samples obtained under different patterning and growth conditions. Our results also demonstrated the possibility of tuning the contact angle of the sample in the range between 115 degrees and 155 degrees, by changing either the pattern of the silicon template or the hydrothermal growth conditions.