I really am no expert, but that looks like Thai ginger(galanga) alpinia?.

I haven't found any soil yet in which ginger won't grow. It does better if the soil is not too hard or rocky. The pot should be very wide but not too deep. The ginger grows right under the surface. A lot of gingers, including what we call culinary ginger, go dormant in the winter. We had a very hard winter this year, several freezes and all my gingers that were planted in the ground have come back. The potted ones, not yet. Gingers sprout late so the ones in the ground have been up less than a month. Don't give up yet, however, you can dig up the roots and check them, it won't retard the growth if they're still viable.

The scallions from store bought are not suitable for replanting. I have grown scallions and they usually do well if they ae grown from thin starts. I also grow a walking onion with a stronger onion flavor greens. Not sure, but you may have the signs of damping off, which can easily kill plants if they been grown for consumpton as opposed to seed/set planting. Some seeds are treated with Captan which reduces damping off issues, as well as other fungal issues. Not sure what plating zone your in, but if its 7-4 the garlic should be hard neck types. These have that stiff stalk in the middle when you seperate the cloves. Soft neck is suitable only for the zones 7 and above. I havenever had any luck growing soft neck garlic, so I like to grow the hard neck Music type, which has huge cloves and only one layer of them. Garlic needs a fall planting, and doesn't do as well if planted now. The hard neck sends up a stiff stalk (scapes) that should be cut off before it opens. Allowing them to remain will take energy away from the cloves. I pickle the scapes in dill and vinegar. Great in salads.

The HD garden department where I live is the worst! Their suppliers often ship perennials with no labels whatsoever, and no one on the staff ever knows what they have in stock. My favorite nursery (Chery Valley, near Beaumont, CA) is several miles from here, but It's always worth the drive.. I just picked up a couple of gallon pots of lovely, healthy Lemon Verbena, a six pack of lush orange thyme, an "Indian Mint" (Satureja douglasii) that may be the true yerba buena, a lovage and a papalo plant. None of those plants woutd be available in any of the big box stores, ever. The papalo was a happy find. I thought I'd never grown it before, but as it turns out I actually have a plant of it from a random seed I stuck in the soil early this spring. And all the time I was thinking it was volunteer cottonwood tree that would need to either be pulled up or transplanted, so I could put the pot to another use. Yippiee! I'll have beau coup papalo seeds to share this fall. jan