Magnolia ‘Margaret Helen’ produces cup and saucer to bowl-shaped blooms with pointed petals that are rose-red at the base and gradually fade to purple-pink near the tips. The flowers typically have 12 tepals, are about 12cm wide by 6cm deep, and have a light, fruity fragrance. Magnolia ‘Margaret Helen’ has an upright, vase-shaped growth habit when young, which becomes more rounded as it ages. Magnolia ‘Margaret Helen’ is deciduous, not native to New Zealand, and a hybrid between Magnolia liliiflora ‘Nigra’ and Magnolia campbellii. Magnolia ‘Margaret Helen’ was raised in the early 1990s by Vance Hooper for Duncan & Davies Nurseries in New Plymouth, New Zealand and was named after Vance’s mother.