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<i>Arabidopsis</i> trichome is specialized structure that develops from epidermal cells, and is an excellent model system for studying various aspects of plant cell development and cell differentiation. Our previous studies have shown that C2H2 zinc finger protein family genes, including <i>GIS</i>, <i>GIS2</i>, <i>GIS3</i>, <i>ZFP5</i>, <i>ZFP6</i> and <i>ZFP8</i>, play an important role in controlling trichome initiation in <i>Arabidopsis</i>. Here, our novel results showed a C2H2 zinc finger protein, <i>ZFP1</i>, which also plays an important role in trichome initiation in <i>Arabidopsis</i>. <i>ZFP1</i> over-expression lines display significantly increased trichome number on cauline leaves, lateral branches and main stems in comparison with wild type plants. <i>ZFP1</i> RNAi lines and loss-of-function mutants showed the opposite phenotype. Furthermore, our study also found that <i>ZFP1</i> mediates the regulation of trichome initiation by cytokinin signaling. The molecular and genetic analyses reveal that <i>ZFP1</i> acts upstream of key trichome initiation factors, <i>GL3</i> and <i>TRY</i>.