Direct aldol reactions have been successfully performed using aromatic aldehyde and cyclic ketone in nonpolar solvent by using immobilized picolylamine on zirconia as a catalyst, in a double walled batch reactor. The prepared catalyst was characterized by SEM, XRD and FT-IR. FT-IR peaks reveal the presence of picolylamine on the surface of zirconia. The catalyst shows excellent catalytic activity in aldol reaction of cyclohexanone with benzaldehyde in cyclohexane giving 2-hydroxyphenylmethylcyclohexanone (55.7% yield) in 4 hr at 80?C. Furthermore, the catalyst is recoverable by simple filtration and could be used several times without significant loss in activity.